Seek .(US:SKLTY) 3 6 Ke·2025-08-18 12:12Core Viewpoint - Mistral AI, once hailed as "Europe's OpenAI," is embroiled in a scandal involving allegations of plagiarism, specifically that its core technology is derived from DeepSeek, misleadingly presented as an original RL achievement [1][3][21]. Group 1: Allegations and Scandal - A former female employee of Mistral revealed in a personal letter that the company distilled DeepSeek's technology and misrepresented it as their own, using OpenAI's data while distorting benchmark results [3][4][21]. - The scandal gained traction online, with notable figures in the AI community, such as DeepMind researcher Susan Zhang, publicly condemning Mistral's unethical practices [4][21]. - The former employee expressed her frustrations about being sidelined and ignored when she raised concerns about the company's practices, leading to her eventual dismissal [6][7]. Group 2: Technical Comparisons - An industry insider, Sam Paech, had previously noted similarities between Mistral's Small 3.2 model and DeepSeek, suggesting that Mistral's outputs closely mirrored those of DeepSeek [9][10]. - Further analysis revealed that Mistral-small-3.2 and DeepSeek-v3 exhibited strikingly similar characteristics, indicating a lack of originality in Mistral's model [12][21]. Group 3: Historical Context and Achievements - Mistral AI was once celebrated for its rapid rise, achieving a valuation of $6.2 billion within just over a year of its establishment, positioning itself as a significant player in the European AI landscape [24][34]. - The company had previously launched successful products, including the Le Chat application, which topped the charts in France, and was supported by French President Macron as a key player in the national AI strategy [26][28][34].